Whistleblower: BP aware of safety problems

More than a year before the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded in the Gulf, a veteran oil industry manager began sounding the alarm about BP's safety practices on BP's offshore platform Atlantis. NBC's Lisa Myers reports.

Business

This content comes from a Full-Text Transcript of the program.

BRIAN WILLIAMS, anchor:Almost a month now after that blowout that started all of this, a top official has lost his job. He is
Chris Oynes
, responsible for overseeing offshore
oil and gas
drilling as head of the
Interior Department
's
Minerals Management Service
. He will step down at the end of this month. The agency is coming under intense scrutiny now, along with
BP
, the
oil company
that operated the rig. Our senior investigative correspondent
Lisa Myers
spoke with someone who tried to raise a red flag on all this a long time ago.

LISA MYERS reporting:This veteran oil energy manager,
Ken Abbott
, began sounding the alarm about
BP
's safety practices more than a year ago while working on another
BPoffshore platform
,
Atlantis
.

Mr. KEN ABBOTT:What I realized about
BP
is that they were not following normal accepted safe engineering practice.

MYERS:Abbott
became concerned because, he says, thousands of
engineering drawing
detailing how the complex structure was built had not been reviewed by
BP
engineers, and may not have been up to date.

Mr. ABBOTT:I thought it could result in a -- in a cataclysmic failure very easily because of the inability of the operators to have the drawings they need to correctly control that platform.

MYERS:Or to handle an emergency. Congressional hearings revealed that there also were problems with drawings on
BP
's
Deepwater Horizon
. As workers there scrambled to save the rig, they wasted critical time because they didn't have

accurate drawings of important equipment:the blowout preventer. Representative
BART STUPAK
(Democrat, Energy Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Chairman): The drawings they received did not match the structure on the sea floor.

MYERS:Still a
BP
spokesman today called
Abbott
's allegations "groundless" and said the
Atlantis
crew has access to the information they need for the safe operation of the facility.
Abbott
was laid off by
BP
and is now working with an
environmental group
. He says he also repeatedly took his concerns to the
federal agency
which regulates
offshore drilling
, the
Interior Department
's
Minerals Management Service
.

Mr. ABBOTT:Basically the
MMS
ignored us and then they made excuses.

MYERS:MMS
has a checkered history. Fifteen reports by government watchdogs over seven years criticize the agency for being too cozy with industry, corrupt or inept. Environmentalists charge that under both
Bush
and
Obama
administrations, the
MMS
has often behaved as though its mission is to help
oil companies
evade environmental laws.

Mr. BILL SNAPE (Center for Biological Diversity):They've continued to have a very cozy relationship with the
oil industry
, continued to issue permits, continued to rubber stamp whatever the industry wanted.

MYERS:In fact, since
January 2009
,
MMS
has repeatedly given permission to
BP
and other companies to drill in the
Gulf of Mexico
without getting required permits assessing the threat to endangered species and marine mammals. And critics say this practice has not changed even in the wake of the accident.

Mr. SNAPE:After the blowup, the
Department of Interior
continued to issue exploratory drilling permits, which is outrageous.

MYERS:MMS
declined to comment on any of this and today refused to send a witness to testify before a
Senate committee
. Last week the
Obama
administration moved to reform the agency.
Abbott
today sued the
Interior Department
to halt operations